Path: netcom.com!csus.edu!decwrl!decwrl!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!usc!math.ohio-state.edu!caen!nigel.msen.com!yale.edu!newsserver.jvnc.net!igor.rutgers.edu!aramis.rutgers.edu!kjc From: kjc@aramis.rutgers.edu (Kelly J. Cooper) Newsgroups: alt.pub.dragons-inn Subject: [MG] About Town Keywords: still defaulting to Mage Guild... Message-ID: Date: 21 Sep 93 14:36:15 GMT Organization: LCSR @ Rutgers University Lines: 131 [Admin: Jameson W. Walker is copyright 1993 by Kelly J. Cooper, Kardia Xvaramene is copyright 1993 by Liralen Li, aka Phyllis Rostykus. Please do not use without express permission.] "I can't run but I can walk much faster than this Can't run but" -Paul Simon * * * It was late morning when a plain and somewhat bedraggled woman came slowly down the stairs and, skirting the crowd, headed for the washroom. Her skin was mottled tan and pale where faint scars wove through weathered skin. Barefoot, she carried a bag and nothing else. There were dark stains on her loose white shift. Mary Littlefair intercepted her and after a whispered conference, handed the woman a small sheaf of notes and an odd shape wrapped in brown paper, then walked away looking much relieved. Mary returned to the bar and murmured something in Rowan Littlefair's ear. He smiled first at Mary and then at the woman's back as she entered the privy. * * * She left the bathroom, damp and somewhat cleaner, wearing boots and carrying a small bundle of clothes in addition to her bag. She sat alone at a small table toward the back of the room, away from the active comings and goings of the bar. Mary bustled over, and took Jameson W. Walker's haltingly spoken order for some broth, as well as both juice and water. Eating in silence, her eyes seemed vague, concentrating on either the view out a window or a vision within. She finished her meal and sat for a moment, before rummaging in her bag for a pen and a scrap of paper. She slowly block-printed a note, blotted it with her crumpled dinner napkin, then folded it over and wrote CORDER on the outside. Stopping off at the bar, she handed it over to Littlefair with a few words. With his quiet nod she turned and took herself back upstairs. * * * Each day for several days, she repeated this casual ritual of rejoining the living, eating food and drinking fluids. Slowly regaining her strength it sometimes seemed. Other times, as if she were preparing herself for something difficult. Some days she received a note; occasionally she wrote one herself. Eventually, she began adding a second visit downstairs, in the early evening. She would sit near Listener, hands folded in her lap, listening to him play. Though it was not obvious, it was as if he often played more soothing tunes during that time of the evening. She would stay for perhaps an hour before going slowly back upstairs. One or two would watch her go, slight frowns on their faces. Few others noticed. * * * After nearly two weeks, Jameson finished her morning meal and shouldered her bag. Today, a thick fighting staff rested against the wall next to her chair and when she stood, she picked it up gingerly with her right hand. Looking at it a moment, she grimaced and took a firmer grip before turning and walking to the door. A deep breath, then she opened the door and with two rapid steps, walked out the door into the sunshine. Her head was down and her eyes screwed half shut as she adjusted to the sudden light. But as she blinked, she held out her left hand and felt the sun warming her skin, lighting up the pale hairs on the back of her hand. With a crooked smile, she turned right and began walking, leaning occasionally on her staff. Her normal gait had been replaced by a more hesitant and halting way of walking that reflected the pain and stiffness still left in her ill-used body. Eyes watched her, but she was not a tempting enough target for broad daylight. And she stayed far enough away from the alleys to avoid grasping hands. As she made her way up the Arcade of Fountains, she stopped now and again to rest, sitting upon the low marble walls that kept each pool's water to itself. She also listened to the chuckling and roaring of water spouting and falling and sometimes, ignoring insistent gravity. Eventually she arrived before the Mage's Guild, where she stopped and looked up at the indifferent stone. Kardia's note had said she was working here. For Dasham. Jameson blinked. Dasham seemed like she'd been a very long time ago. Shaking her head to clear it, Jameson backed up and sat beside the fountain halfway between the Library and the Guild Hall, to rest again. And think. * * * Kardia walked out, blinking at the sunlight. She didn't notice Jameson at first, so Jameson got a moment to study the tall red-head. Long brown fingers stroked her hair back from her eyes as Kardia stretched, unkinking cramped muscles and rolling her shoulders. A pony-sized blackness moved out into the open air, behind Kardia and turned into a giant dog that looked around the square and caught Jameson's green eyes with its red ones. The woman turned at that time, and her eyes swept over Jameson and then came back. A frown touched her face and then Kardia's eyes went wide for a moment before she realized that Jameson was looking at her. The frown and surprise were wiped away by a smile and Kardia waved at Jameson and she strode over. Her stride was long, loping, more like Jameson's old walk than Kardia's familiar limp. Kardia sat down on the fountain edge and sighed. She pulled out a small wax tablet and wrote, "Lunch?" Jameson blinked, leaned over and scratched on the wax "Yes. In a bit. After short rest." Kardia looked slightly confused and scratched a "?" on the tablet, then cleared it of both their writing. Jameson waited patiently until she was done before gently taking the tablet and scratching "Have always thought it polite to speak as spoken to" before handing it back. Kardia just laughed and leaned back to enjoy the sunshine. --- Liralen Li | "Remember, science is talking about the universe in a li@inigo.Data-IO.com | way you can understand it, magic is talking to the aka Phyllis Rostykus | universe in a way it can't resist hearing." Carl Rigney & Kelly J. Cooper (kjc@cs.rutgers.edu). Feedback appreciated. I'm back...